Military Aircraft Crash: Ondo govt explains difficulty in rescue operation, recovering victims’ bodies

The Ondo State Commissioner for Environment, Tob Loko, has given a graphic description of the state of the crashed ATR-42 aircraft, explaining the difficulty in recovering the bodies of casualties from the swamp.

The plane crashed on Monday at Igbokoda, headquarters of Ilaje LGA of the state.

Speaking to journalists at Igbokoda on Tuesday, Mr Loko said the plane nosedived into the water breaking into two.

According to him, the plane plunged right to bottom of the river and that because of the nature of the crash, local divers helping out have yet to properly locate it.

“Honestly I’ve gone to the place, and I discovered that there were wreckage everywhere,” he lamented.

“I saw the divers trying to see where the plane is but they were finding it extremely difficult, but when I was leaving, one of them said he was able to spot it, so they could only bring out parts.

“We felt that was the particular spot of the wreckage and we were there with little boat that could not bring it out, so we felt we have to make heavier deployment.”

Mr Loko said all relevant agencies and ministries had been directed to go to Igbokoda to assist with the rescue operation.

According to the commissioner, the floating escavators have been deployed to help lift the aircraft from the bottom of the water.

He said the plan was to see the divers go under the water, tie the aircraft wreckage to the crane of the escavator and then lift it out of water.

Mr Loko explained that the use of smaller boats has not achieve much.

“By the time we deploy the swamp buggies, we will be able to pull it out and see how much rescue we are able to do. In few minutes from now, we should be able to deploy it to forest. The place is not as close as people think, it’s at least 500m from Igbokoda.

“By the time we took these buggies, we will be able to make rescue and only then can we ascertain whether there are survivors or not” he said.

Meanwhile, the Commissioner for Works, Ayoronde Olawoye, who also expressed sadness over the incident, said it would be difficult to reach any concrete conclusions on the crash.

He said a meaningful work would be accomplished within five hours once the floating escalators set in the waters.

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“The state government has deployed all the machinery to this area, the swamp buggies and some equipment that can assist to bring out the plane. You can see that the swamp buggie is set to float on the water and to go to where it happened. Within five hours, a reasonable thing will be done,” he said.

“Nobody can give specific information now until we get to the scene with the machines. So any information now will be on assumption.”

The floating escavators could not get into the water as operators battled for several hours to attach floating tanks to the sides of one of the escavators.

There are fears that as night approaches, rescue efforts may be difficult.